Madame: Elisabeth Charlotte of Orleans
The ungainly princess from the Palatinate was an unlikely bride for Louis XIV’s brother, writes Nis A. Petersen, but her frank nature and resourceful intelligence commended her to the King.
The news that set the French court talking in the late summer of 1671 was the impending marriage of Monsieur, younger and only brother of the King. Monsieur’s previous wife, Henrietta of England, daughter of Charles I, had died the previous year under mysterious circumstances and, as the King himself tactfully stated, a ‘vacancy’ now existed at court.
That this prized vacancy should be filled by the daughter of a minor German prince puzzled many. That the new consort of the elegant and effeminate Monsieur should be ungainly, unattractive and decidedly hoydenish was nothing short of astounding.
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